49ers' loss alters NFC pecking order

Updated 11:51 pm, Sunday, December 23, 2012

Marshawn Lynch, left, of the Seattle Seahawks, pushes through 49er defense during the first half of a game Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA.

Marshawn Lynch, left, of the Seattle Seahawks, pushes through 49er defense during the first half of a game Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012, at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA.

Photo: Jordan Stead, Special To The Chronicle

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Colin Kaepernick struggled to get off the plays on time, converted only three third downs and had a 72.0 passer rating.

Colin Kaepernick struggled to get off the plays on time, converted only three third downs and had a 72.0 passer rating.

Photo: Jordan Stead, Special To The Chronicle

49ers' loss alters NFC pecking order

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Seattle -- Forgive the national viewing audience if it's confused. Forgive everyone if they're flummoxed by the 49ers.

One Sunday after they looked like a swaggering, world-beating Super Bowl favorite, the 49ers used their prime-time showcase to exhibit their other side. Looking uninspired and overmatched, they quietly succumbed to the Seahawks, falling 42-13, the worst loss of the Jim Harbaugh era.

"I thought it would be a tighter, closer game," said Harbaugh, who had his 49th birthday Sunday.

Instead, it was a blowout, and the 49ers' status as the team to beat in the NFC changed completely on one rainy night. Their path to the Super Bowl just got a lot more precarious.

With the loss, the 49ers are a half-game ahead of Seattle. They can win the NFC West with a win over Arizona on Sunday, but they dropped from the second to third seed in the NFC. If that holds, it means the 49ers would not get a bye in the first round and would be guaranteed home-field advantage only in the wild-card round. Even worse? The 49ers might end up hosting either Seattle or Minnesota, two of the four teams that have beaten them this season.

Whatever happens, this isn't the way a team with Super Bowl aspirations wants to look in late December. The 49ers, playing in a steady rain at the loudest outdoor stadium in the NFL, melted down in every phase.

On special teams, a field-goal attempt by David Akers was blocked and returned for a touchdown. On offense, quarterback Colin Kaepernick struggled again to get in plays on time, which caused him to use two timeouts early in the first half, and twice was flagged for delay of game. Kaepernick couldn't get the team into the end zone until garbage time and converted only three third downs. Two second-half drives ended with turnovers.

The biggest collapse was on defense. The 49ers were weakened from the outset, with the loss of their best defensive player, Justin Smith. Despite Harbaugh's playful radio chatter about "Cowboy" "roping and riding," Smith was inactive because of an elbow injury, snapping his games-played streak at 185.

His absence was obvious immediately as Marshawn Lynch ran right through the hole where Smith should have been for a 24-yard touchdown. The stadium, as it does when Lynch runs wild, literally shook. The 49ers were playing from behind after just 72 seconds.

That's a place they haven't been much this season. For most of the season - indeed for most of Harbaugh's two seasons - they've scored early and stayed ahead. They haven't been a come-from-behind team. They really haven't had to be resilient.

The 49ers didn't mount a comeback Sunday, not even close. They yielded their biggest point total in more than three years.

"They showed who was the better team tonight," free safety Dashon Goldson said of the Seahawks.

The loss continued the 49ers' strange rule-of-three pattern. Every third game, they have come up short, losing to the Vikings and Giants, tying the Rams, losing to the Rams and now losing to the Seahawks. Do the 49ers get complacent every third game? Too tired?

It's more a matter of circumstance. The 49ers have faced tough teams in every third game, though the Vikings didn't seem that way at the time. They do now - they have won their past four games, including a victory Sunday over the AFC's top seed, Houston. In the sixth game, the 49ers faced their old nemesis, the Giants. In the ninth and 12th games, they faced their new nemesis, the Rams.

It was easy to predict that the 15th game would be huge, especially as Seattle gained late-season momentum - the Seahawks have scored 150 points in their past three games. There was no way Pete Carroll's team was going to be an easy outing for the 49ers.

Seattle is a team on the rise. The defense is the fastest in the league. Poised rookie quarterback Russell Wilson clearly outplayed Kaepernick in a matchup of young starters. The rivalry between the two teams is going to be heated for a long time. In fact, the entire NFC West picture has changed in the past two months: The 49ers won't be running away with this division in the near future.

The 49ers sustained a heavy toll, both in the pride department and on the injury report. Receiver Mario Manningham, who was active for the first time in two weeks, left the game with a knee injury. Tight end Vernon Davis, after a ferocious first-half hit by safety Kam Chancellor, was ruled out with a concussion (a chilling development for any San Francisco player in the aftermath of the Alex Smith decision that elevated Kaepernick to starter).

Perhaps it isn't surprising that the 49ers had a letdown after a cross-country trip and the elation of beating Tom Brady's Patriots at Foxborough.

"No excuses," Goldson said.

The 49ers didn't make excuses. They said all the expected things, about bouncing back, controlling their destiny, staying together.

But Sunday was a huge setback. One that potentially changed the entire course of the season.

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